The Frogs will have a tough test this weekend when they travel to Death Valley to play Clemson after a 56 to 21 victory over FCS opponent Texas State.
Head coach Gary Patterson said he was not happy with the team’s performance against Texas State, and that the team will need to improve on some issues before it plays Clemson.
“We’ve got to be smarter about things,” Patterson said. “We won’t be able to push around Clemson. We can’t make mistakes in the kicking game and can’t turn the ball over.”
Patterson said the team needs to not have miscommunication on defense like it did against Texas State and needs to contain Clemson tailback C.J. Spiller.
The Frogs are currently ranked No. 14 in the USA Today poll and No. 15 in the AP poll. Mountain West foes BYU and Utah dropped in the rankings after losses to Florida State and Oregon, respectively. BYU fell from No. 7 to No. 19 in the AP poll, and Utah fell out of the rankings completely from the No. 18 spot.
TCU tailback Joseph Turner had a dominant performance against Texas State with 129 yards on the ground on 13 carries and three touchdowns. It was his third career game with a 100 rushing yards, and he led the team in rushing for the game.
“Texas State is a good team, and I guess we thought we could come out calm and slow, but they came out and gave us a good game,” Turner said.
All-American defensive end Jerry Hughes had another big game for the defense. He recorded three sacks to lead the team and totaled five tackles overall. He now has four and a half sacks through two games.
“We started off real slow, and we weren’t playing to our capabilities,” Hughes said. “Every week we game plan to shut out opponents. Having some mistakes tonight and watching Texas State capitalize on them really hurts us, but at the same time, it gives us a chance to learn from it.”
Quarterback Andy Dalton threw for 222 yards with a touchdown pass to Jimmy Young, and he threw an interception. Dalton did a good job of distributing the ball, completing 75 percent of his passes. He also rushed for 35 yards on eight carries.
“You have to improve each week and even though we won, there were times in the game where we could have played a lot better,” Dalton said. “You have to get up and prepare each week to win the game.”
Sarah Thomas, the only female referee in major college football, was an official in the game.
